Way to make it.

[0311 Hesco]

When I get back to reality, I would love to get into farming. I have a firearm accessory related patent I am going to put in as soon as I can and hope that works, but surely is not my Plan A. I intend to get into machining as a full time job, but I really want to be a farmer. I live in Ohio, and there's plenty of land around me, I just don't have a clue on how to get involved in it. After my machining school, I do intend on taking some agriculture classes. You farmers out there please chime in and show me the route!

 

[Adam B]

You really need to work on one first if you haven't already

after you get 3 years of experience, you can look into this
USDA Farm Service Agency: Beginning Farmer Loan Programs | Center for Rural Affairs

 

[Maggot]

go organic

 

[.30Nate]

Not sure what part of OH your from but land around here has been selling for $8500 or so and acre. It usually gets bought up by the mega farmers making it hard for the smaller farmers to make it.

 

[KYpatriot]

Small family farms are dead if you are not in a niche market as the above posters indicate. I'll agree that organic produce is the way to go, sustainable farming practices, etc. Finding reasonable land will be the hard part...it is outrageously expensive right now. Do you have an "in" with any oldtimers? Many times the kids dont want to farm and just want their money from the land, so when they go the land sells fast.

For the small time organic niche market stuff you dont have to have as much land as you might think. Check out greenhouse growing...people pay crazy money for hanging baskets and annual flowers and such, as well as early tomatoes. Look for places not well served for that are having to go to the big box stores. Also, look into aquaponics in association with that...I know a guy raising tilapia where the water circulates to fertilize the vegetables then back to the fish...

 

[Maggot]

...I know a guy raising tilapia where the water circulates to fertilize the vegetables then back to the fish...

Great idea.

 

[0311 Hesco]

Not sure what part of OH your from but land around here has been selling for $8500 or so and acre. It usually gets bought up by the mega farmers making it hard for the smaller farmers to make it.

Dayton area but I'd like to get down to Chillicothe area where the land is closer to 1500-2000 an acre of tillable land!

Yea, I would do some sort of niche market and have a machine/gunsmith shop on the side in a perfect world. I got high hopes I guess. I just want to get back to basic. I intend to make my own biodiesel and a big enough garden where I can provide for my wife and hopefully kids someday. As far as income, I don't really need a whole lot, just enough to keep the lights on and a little for the kids. I prefer family time over overtime. And the little chunk that the VA gives every month is enough for a mortgage and car payment so I guess I am thinking pretty small time. The Big Farming Machine doesn't appeal to me. I want to do it because I love it, not because I have to. I know a couple farmers, not as many as I would like. I appreciate the help gentlemen. Keep the ideas coming.

 

[Wes_Mantooth]

Every small farmer I know has a full time job plus farming. The successful ones are work-a-holics. They know where to cut corners and where to spend good money. They know how to fix their own equipment and buildings. They are more than willing to lend a hand to their neighbors, and their neighbors help them too, even if its just giving them a couple bottles of whiskey or rolls of venison sausage. It's a system that works very well in a part of the country where people aren't making much money and the economy continues to fail.

Last night after working a ten hour day the farmer who rents my land came home and checked and fed his cattle then started the tractor and started plowing snow, he made it up our drive when the diesel started to gel (-10F and dropping). Still took the time after shutting down the tractor to stop by the house and tell us we could park our vehicles at his place where we could get out in the morning.

My advice, if you can't get land under $2000/acre, work hard and save until the right deal comes along on property. Also figure out how you are going to plant and harvest, equipment is expensive.

 

[pizzamanny]

Read Joel Salatin

 

[sharac]

As far as i see it, go Colorado go OGG (organic green ganja) there should be enough turnaround to get fast return on your investment and save some for investment into expanding. Considering future legal trends you could soon go national and have true all american ganja growing farm and who knows what future brings maybe someday Coca Cola will revert to original recipe ...

 

[High Binder]

I worked as a machinist for 6.5 years. Nobody I worked with (500+ dudes) went to any trade school, now I was also by far one of the youngest dudes there but I would think any company willing to hire you will also train you so you might be able to save some money. During my time as a machinist I trained countless people on everything I had learned and I quit as a level III. If the demand for machinists is as high as people say it is, you shouldn't have a problem walking right into a job even without school because let's face it, it's a pretty rough job with fucked hours. You get hurt EVERY SINGLE day, be it cuts/chip-splinters/lifting/etc. and it gets really old being coated in oils/coolants so make sure you don't have a romantic idea of what the job really is before you invest money in a trade school and/or time into the job. Just some food for thought..

 

[RJW]

For a family to make a living on farming, you need 1500 acres owned or rented. Add to this an investment of $750k in machinery. Remember to buy the crop insurance. With this you have not incurred any planting and production costs. Oh, yeah I forgot about the grain drying operation. Add another $150k at least.

Don't want to discourage you, but get a good job as a machinist. Buy 10 acres with a house. Plant an orchard and gardens and raise a calf and couple hogs every year for meat. Good luck.

4th generation farmer here

 

[ddavis]

For a family to make a living on farming, you need 1500 acres owned or rented. Add to this an investment of $750 in machinery. Remember to buy the crop insurance. With this you have not incurred any planting and production costs. Oh, yeah I forgot about the grain drying operation. Add another $150k at least.

Don't want to discourage you, but get a good job as a machinist. Buy 10 acres with a house. Plant an orchard and gardens and raise a calf and couple hogs every year for meat. Good luck.

4th generation farmer here

That seems like good advice. I have some friends who are rice farmers. They farm 2k acres a year of leased land and do pretty well. They have several harvesters that are 250k each, plus tons of other equipment, and there is always something that needs to be fixed. They work very hard. They also spend about 100k a year on water. Recently due to the drought, the gov't decided not to allocate any water to them, so they had to quit farming rice like they have been the last 50 years and start farming row-crops. This means getting all new equipment. I remember him telling me that growing organic rice only gives 1/3 as much yield per acre, but pays twice as much and you don't spend any money on chemicals. That seems to be the way to go, but then there is also more risk with bugs decimating everything.

 

[0311 Hesco]

Yea, I think what RJW is thinking is a little big for me. I don't want to have to pay for all kinds of land and all that. 20 acres is plenty. I think I would do a lot of beef and little crop. Maybe a dairy cow or two. My full intent is to do machining as a full time job for a while until I can acquire a "family farm" someday.

High Binder, didn't realize that, thanks for the info. I guess is just ASSumed that for a technical trade like machining, you would need creds first. Thanks y'all for the information.

 

[Phil1]

Don't go overboard on self sufficiency. Thats a very time consuming way of operating. Try some ads in the local farming papers stating that you don't have alot of money and want to start farming and need equipment. You'd be surprised how generous farmers are and how much unused equipment that they have laying around.As they got bigger they would park the old stuff in case they needed it later. That they will now give away!

Fix the equipment up, trade for something better, barter your welding and machining for feed, fertilizer, etc. Another advantage- no taxes on the trading and lots of deductions for input costs.

If you're thinking of starting small. Rent to start because you may find a better piece of land once you have equipment, more $$ and then can jump on it.

 

[Texar2]

Several farmers I know work as full time firemen. They work 10 24 hour shifts a month. That gives them benifits and they have time for farming. You dont have to buy all that land and equipment to take pride in farming. With your days off you could easily work for a farm that is already established. I used to cut and bale hay for several friends. Still got the satisfaction of a hard days work and didnt have to buy anything. Best part was watching the sun set on all your work. Then we would drink a few beers, shoot the shit and do it all over again. Another great crop is watermelons. They only need tending about once a week and people pay good money for them. Watermelons are a great side job crop that you can sell at the road side or farmers market. You said raise a family. If you got kids put em in FFA or 4H and raise show animals. That way you can do some farming, eat some damn fine meat and raise some damn fine kids. Good luck and pm me anytime.

 

[0311 Hesco]

Thanks Texar2, faith and love for growing things are two top tier things I want to instill in my future children. They don't have to like what I like but I can show them what hard work looks like. People these days disgust me at their lack of work ethic. Anyway, I do have my Firefighter level 2 and EMT certs, just never materialized in my area, too many fire schools grads and not enough jobs. I was either under-experienced or over qualified. Just figured that was not where I needed to be. I will def. take on a full time job in machining (Lord willing) and that will supply the benefits. That was a major concern in being strictly a farmer. Not sure how people do that. 4H and FFA are awesome and wish I had them growing up, hope to be able to get my kids in that. In the last few jobs I have had, firearm sales, armed security, and federal police officer, I guess I just didn't feel like I was really "working". Maybe the Marine Corps skewed my view on what work is, but like you said, watching the sun go down on a patch you just cleared, or a barn or tree you just took down, is much more rewarding to me than getting off a shift in a cruiser, and all you did was break up a fight or find a little bit of weed or something. I think the best job I have had since the corps was an under the table job for an auctioneer doing odd jobs around his property for $10/hr!

 

[Texar2]

There are many crops that are low maintenance, high yield that would be great for a side job. 20 acres would be plenty. Purple hull peas are a great seller and require little care. You can pack a deep freeze full of good veggies and eat em all year. You also have to remember that making $5000 cash on the side is like making $7500 at a regular job, once you factor in taxes. My dad had a full time job and we were able to farm watermelons on the weekends for a little extra scratch. We would wind down by going fishing and fry up the fish for dinner. Lots of good memories. As a plus 4H also offers youth small bore rifle. Farm life will strengthen you and your family in every way.

 

[Maggot]

If trends continue you might want to consider commercial hemp.

-Better paper than wood pulp.
-Better cloth than cotton
-Produces more per acre/per year than either.
-Better rope than nylon.
-The seed oil is really high in the omegas and other healthy stuff.
-Can be used to produce fuel.
-It is a nitrogen fixer...it leaves more nitrogen in the soil than it takes out.
-Naturally resistant to almost everything and it will grow almost anywhere.
-You can probably get hippie wanna be producers to work for nothing with a "work/study program.

Interesting link:

HEMP - Global Warming

 

[Foul Mike]

Something to think about is where you want to be and with that how many acres it takes to sustain a cow/calf unit. and if you need a stinking horse.
There are MANY 10-40 ac./ with a horse /or 2 all over the place out here in E. Colo. where people think they can have their horses and a steer or two and cats and dogs and well shit anything. This will feed us all.
The critters soon overgraze the ground and start eating roots and then the wind blows and blows dirt everywhere. A downhill cycle from there.
This land out here just can not grow the grass as down in Kansas or other places that have more rainfall. It is also hard to recover that land once blown bare.
More critters= more land. Regards, FM

 

[Maggot]

Something to think about is where you want to be and with that how many acres it takes to sustain a cow/calf unit. and if you need a stinking horse.
There are MANY 10-40 ac./ with a horse /or 2 all over the place out here in E. Colo. where people think they can have their horses and a steer or two and cats and dogs and well shit anything. This will feed us all.
The critters soon overgraze the ground and start eating roots and then the wind blows and blows dirt everywhere. A downhill cycle from there.
This land out here just can not grow the grass as down in Kansas or other places that have more rainfall. It is also hard to recover that land once blown bare.
More critters= more land. Regards, FM

That's what happened in Texas. At one time most of it was knee high grass and huge live oak and lots of little springs. Then they brought in the cattle and grazed it to near nothing, then the sheep and goats took to absolutely nothing. Then the prickly pear cactus, mesquite, and worst of all, cedar took over. A large cedar will evaporate 10 gallons of water per day. I used to own a ranch out south of Rock Springs and could never understand how it got that name. A neighbor showed me an old photo of the grass, with little bubbling springs...now all gone. Fortunately they are learning to clear the cedar and cactus and re seed with native grasses and some of it is coming back.

 

[0311 Hesco]

Interesting posts. I was going to have just a few cattle. maybe 5 or 6 tops. Few for beef and one or two for dairy. Still not sure on most of this yet. I just know I want to be away from a ton of people and I want to be able to let my kids hunt/fish/play outside like real kids used to.

 

[MontanaKid]

Nothing wrong with a little farming. I've been lucky enough to grow up/work on my family's berry farm, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything (well maybe a 5000+ acre ranch in Montana ). Summertime work is usually done between the hours dark - dark, break out the chem lights for unloading semi trailers, lol. It's a great environment for building a youngsters work ethic. Nothing puts a smile on a kids face like running a tractor on their own, King of the World.
Good luck!

 

[0311 Hesco]

MTNCreek, thanks for the advice. I really need to start doing some research on what I want to raise.

 

[flylo]

I'm in SW Michigan & just saw several large tracts of corn/bean land sell for $9800 per acre. We lease for $200/acre. If you have to buy your feed for 5 or 6 cattle you won't make anything unless you can grind your own. It's gotten to be "go big or go home" for being a full time farmer. Get a good career, be a hobby farmer, do the farmers markets, grow speciialty items, put in a machine/welding,fab shop & have a blast! Just my opinion.

 

[Foul Mike]

Any place that you look at, check out the water and well permits etc.
Just because a big ditch runs by you and through your property does not give you right to take water from said ditch.
There are places in E Colorado that your well permit gives you in the house domestic use only. No livestock and no garden.
They haul in water for the critters if they think the water people are looking.
It takes 2 Philidelphia Lawyers to figure out all of our water laws. Regards, FM

 

[Maggot]

Any place that you look at, check out the water and well permits etc.
Just because a big ditch runs by you and through your property does not give you right to take water from said ditch.
There are places in E Colorado that your well permit gives you in the house domestic use only. No livestock and no garden.
They haul in water for the critters if they think the water people are looking.
It takes 2 Philidelphia Lawyers to figure out all of our water laws. Regards, FM

And what he said goes double if you land in New Mexico. Word has it that T. Boone Pickens has bought up all the water rights. Next wars wont be over oil...they'll be over water.

 

[Rthur]

I have been farming myself for just under 30 years. I am the 5th generation. I would highly recommend working on a farm to gain the experience. That being said working for one and running it are two different things. You can still gain experience/knowledge that will benefit you. The problem with trying to get into farming is about efficiency. As the size goes up (acreage) the more you can spread the cost of equipment per acre. You would have to have livestock and crops on smaller operations.
It can be a great way to make a living and also a way to make money disappear.
good luck
R
btw if you have any questions feel free to pm me

 

[bullet65]

Small family farms are dead if you are not in a niche market as the above posters indicate. I'll agree that organic produce is the way to go, sustainable farming practices, etc. Finding reasonable land will be the hard part...it is outrageously expensive right now. Do you have an "in" with any oldtimers? Many times the kids dont want to farm and just want their money from the land, so when they go the land sells fast.

For the small time organic niche market stuff you dont have to have as much land as you might think. Check out greenhouse growing...people pay crazy money for hanging baskets and annual flowers and such, as well as early tomatoes. Look for places not well served for that are having to go to the big box stores. Also, look into aquaponics in association with that...I know a guy raising tilapia where the water circulates to fertilize the vegetables then back to the fish...

check out this video of a man who says he can have a million pounds of food a year on 3 acres. don't know much about but have watched and is interesting.

 

[0311 Hesco]

Thanks for the insight guys. For the record, I'm staying either in Ohio or Kentucky when I get back; most likely Ohio. I have heard of the mineral rights and all that nonsense before.